Employment Lessons for the 21st Century
Let me posit three — that’s right only three — simple rules for employment in the 21st Century.
1. Your employer is not your friend.
2. If your work can be done by a computer, it will be.
3. Ownership of reliably compensable skills and/or client relationships that cannot be digitized facilitates self-employment.
Old man wisdom: it’s not your Grandma’s work world anymore.
Scott Galloway is dead right when he advises young men and women entering the work force to (i) identify an activity or endeavor which you naturally do well; (ii) determine if the world is willing to pay for that talent if done extremely well; and (iii) increase your natural talent and by training and study to maximize your value ($$$) to someone else. To hell with doing what you love and everything will work out fine. That’s bulls***t. His point is simple: build compensable value in yourself.
Here’s an example. (It applies outside of professional services fields as well but it makes for a good story well told.) A friend of mine is a law firm marketing professional. She knows what she is doing and she does it well. But, in this day and age, lawyers have ever-increasing access to personal and professional networks, social media and applications; they think that they can market…
